THE FORCES IN MIND TRUST AWARDS A GRANT TO KING’S COLLEGE LONDON TO RESEARCH HOW VETERANS WITH POST-COMBAT DISORDERS ADJUST TO CIVILIAN LIFE

The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT), established to help ex-Service men and women make a successful transition back to civilian life, has awarded a grant of £152,119 to King’s College London to identify factors that both encourage and inhibit the process of military transition for veterans with post-combat disorders. The project is being led by Professor Edgar Jones – Professor of the History of Medicine and Psychiatry at King’s.

The project will analyse historical data and collate it in order to summarise key learnings which are applicable to future transition; in particular, outlining areas of support needed for Service personnel and the role of employment. Whilst the link between mental illness and unemployment is well-known within the general population, much less is understood about the veteran population; particularly those dealing with post-combat disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The data explored will include files on war pensions awarded in the aftermath of the Second World War and 1,084 case notes of patients treated at the York Clinic at Guy’s Hospital, between April 1944 and December 1949. Ex-Service personnel in receipt of a pension at the time were required to attend annual medical boards and as a result, there is a huge breadth of evidence about the transition process from military to civilian employment during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Dr Alberta Engelbrecht has been appointed as the Research Worker on the project and will take up her post in January 2015.

Chief Executive of the Forces in Mind Trust, Ray Lock, said:  “Historically, many of the issues surrounding veterans were based on anecdotal or emotive evidence.  The resources being analysed in this research are unique and will further add to the strong evidence-base to which we are contributing across the sector.”

Professor Edgar Jones at King’s College London said: “This important grant will enable us to track how the effects of psychological trauma evolved over time and to explore what factors aided recovery or sustained illness.”

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Notes to Editors: For interview requests, photos or more information, please contact:

Alice Farrow at The PR Office on afarrow@theproffice.com  / mobile:  07788 540 924 / direct dial: 027 284 6955.

Notes to Editors: For interview requests, photos or more information, please contact Alice Farrow at The PR Office on afarrow@theproffice.com  / mobile:  07788 540 924 / direct dial: 027 284 6955.

• About the Forces in Mind Trust: The Forces in Mind Trust came about  from a partnership between the Big Lottery Fund, Cobseo (The Confederation of Service Charities) and other charities and organisations. FiMT continues the Fund’s long-standing legacy of support for veterans across the UK with an endowment of £35 million awarded in 2012. Since 2004 the Fund has given more than £88 million to programmes supporting veterans. http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/.

• During its first two years, FiMT has commissioned seminal research reports such as the Transition Mapping Study (TMS) which reviewed how the entire transition process from military to civilian life currently works and how it is viewed by stakeholders and recent Service leavers.  The economic model developed for the report calculated the total cost of poor transition to the UK as a whole to be £113 million in 2012, whilst the report itself has been discussed across Whitehall and debated in the House of Lords.

• Useful links
  • Twitter: twitter.com/FIMtrust
  • Website: fim-trust.org
  • Latest news: fim-trust.org/news
  • FiMT has signed up to the Corporate Covenant: https://www.gov.uk/the-corporate-covenant

• About King’s College London (kcl.ac.uk)

King’s College London is one of the top 20 universities in the world (2013/14 QS World University Rankings) and the fourth oldest in England. It is The Sunday Times ‘Best University for Graduate Employment 2012/13′. King’s has nearly 26,000 students (of whom more than 10,600 are graduate students) from some 140 countries worldwide, and more than 7,000 staff. The College is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £590 million.

King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar.

King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King’s Health Partners. King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world’s leading research-led universities and three of London’s most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

King’s fundraising campaign  – World questions|King’s answers – created to address some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity has reached its £500 million target 18 months ahead of schedule. The College is now aiming to build on this success and raise a further £100 million by the end of 2015, to fund vital research, deliver innovative new treatments and to support scholarships. The campaign’s five priority areas are neuroscience and mental health, leadership and society, cancer, global power and children’s health. More information about the campaign is available at www.kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers.